


Jam, Tea, Paintings and Other Ways to Remeber the Doctor

by Arynphallia



Series: Jam is Most Definitely Not Rubbish [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artist Rose Tyler, Companions Meet Companions (Doctor Who), Eleventh Doctor Era, F/M, Jam, Tea, Time Lord Rose Tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 19:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18879523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arynphallia/pseuds/Arynphallia
Summary: Amy feels terrible about eating the Doctor's apple butter and sets out to find some more. The jam shop she and Rory go to exposes an interesting club.





	Jam, Tea, Paintings and Other Ways to Remeber the Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> This is Part II of my Jam au. PLEASE read part one before reading this.

"I think I've really messed up, Rory." Amy whispers one night after they've crawled into their, thankfully no longer bunk, bed aboard the TARDIS. 

 

He pulls her back to his chest and she relaxes against him, "What happened?" He asks, his voice ghosting over the back of her neck, making her shiver.

 

"There was this jar of this stuff called apple butter. It's kinda like jam I think? Really good on toast. Anyway, I was looking for jam one day and it was just sitting there in the cupboard. So I used that. I've been eating it for the past month or so."  She exhales shakily, guilt welling up inside her.

 

"And?" Rory prods when she goes silent. 

 

"I think it was special to the Doctor." She clenches her fingers tightly around the arm he has wrapped around her middle. "He came in the galley right as I finished it off." There's a heavy pause. "Rory, I've never seen him so sad. It was like I had told him the TARDIS was dead or something." 

 

"Over a jar of jam?" Amy can her the confusion in his voice. 

 

"I don't know, maybe someone special gave it to him. But he looked… .” It's so hard to explain just how bad the Doctor looked. “It was like I had somehow destroyed the only thing that let him be happy. I feel terrible."  She says in a small voice.

 

"We could get him new jam?" Rory offers, "The TARDIS needs groceries we could get him something special."

 

It's not much, but it's a good plan.

 

The next day the Doctor drops them off in Cardiff of all places, claiming that there's a rift he uses to refuel the TARDIS. 

 

"Go get groceries." He says flippantly from under the console. "I've important repair work to do." They're just walking out the doors when he calls, "And make sure you get bananas."

 

"We will." They call back playfully, rolling their eyes. His obsession with bananas has no end. 

 

"Okay." Amy says after consulting her phone. "There's actually a specialty jam store three blocks over. They claim to 'specialize is a variety of rare and interesting flavors'."

 

"Perfect." Rory says, "let's go."

 

The store is set into a cozy row of buildings, the kind with apartments on the second floor. There are two cheery flower pots with marigolds overflowing down the sides. An old fashioned wooden sign over the door simply reads 'Jam'. But the real shock comes from the door, which is painted the exact same shade of blue as the TARDIS. "Rory." Amy breathes. 

 

"I know." He whispers back. 

 

They look at each other in shock. They know first hand exactly how rare that color is and how hard it is to get an exact match. It had taken weeks to find the color they had used for their front door, and even still, it wasn't an exact match like this was. 

 

"Do you think?" Rory asked. "But it can't be."

 

"Only one way to find out." Amy matched over to the door, dragging Rory behind her and pulled it open. A bell over the door tinkled pleasantly and the young blonde girl minding the counter looked up from her book. 

 

"Hi!" she chirped, "are you guys looking for anything special today?"

 

"Do you have apple butter?" Rory inquired while Amy started to wander. 

 

The inside of the shop could only be described as quirky: rows of jam and other spreads stretched back on tall shelves made of a dark wood. Various breaks along the walls offered sample stations with a handful of flavors, small pieces of toast and water. On the walls behind these stations were paintings of various landscapes. One in particular caught Amy's eye. 

 

"Rory." She called and he quickly made his way over. "Rory, this painting. Does it look familiar?" 

 

She watches him carefully as he takes in the scene. It's a marketplace, bustling with life, each stall so different from the others with no rhyme or reason to what is sold next to what. The perspective is set from behind a specific table in the chip shop, with a plate of the markets famous red chips in the foreground. But the true focus is centered on a man with close cropped hair in a leather jacket who seems to be haggling with one of the vendors.

 

Amy knows that table intimately. She's sat at it with Rory while waiting for the Doctor to pick up whatever TARDIS part he needed at the time. 

 

Rory's eyes go wide. "It's the market on Traxium 7."

 

"Exactly." Amy mutters, glaring at the painting. She moves to the next stations, quickly taking in the next painting. This one is of a frozen ocean, waves of ice stopped in perfect peaks. The sunlight shines through the ice, highlighting the crystalline structure and creating blue shadows in their wake. There's a man in a brown pinstriped suit tucked under one of the waves with a picnic blanket and steaming cups of something. The sunlight through the ice creates dazzling patterns on his skin and give him a shining blue outline. He's smiling gently, as if there's no where else he'd rather be. 

 

"Do you recognize that planet?" Rory asks quietly. 

 

"No. But it's beautiful." She tears her eyes away. "I think there's one more."

 

The third is in the very back of the store. It's different from the others in that it clearly is of earth. A large, sprawling manor in the country with a massive lawn where a rather interesting group of people are taking tea. Children play off in the distance with parents looking on fondly. A woman with a bomber covered in patches has a small dark skinned toddler lifted above her head, they both appear to be laughing in delight. 

A redhead is smacking a rather handsome man with dark hair and blue eyes on the arm, her face twisted with laughter, as if he's just said something inappropriate and funny. 

 

"Amy, look." Rory says, pointing to the tree line. 

 

There, nestled carefully in the trees is the TARDIS. 

 

"It can't be." Amy breathes. "It can't Rory."

 

"I'm afraid it can." The shop girl says from behind them, startling them both and making them whirl around in fright. "Sorry."

 

"You know the Doctor." Amy states. 

 

"I did, yes."

 

"Who are you?" Amy snaps. 

 

"Rose Noble." She says, offering a hand. "I used to travel with the Doctor."

 

"Rory Williams." Rory says, shaking her hand, "This is my wife, Amy."

 

"Current companions, I assume. Come back up front with me." She leads them back to the front of the store and pulls a photo album out from underneath. "What I'm about to tell you, the Doctor can never know. Alright?"

 

Amy barrows her eyes, instantly suspicious, "Why not?"

 

"Because it will break his hearts."

 

Amy gapes, "Okay."

 

She flips the album open to a black and white photo of a young couple. "1963 or so, the Doctor started making regular appearances to earth. Started picking up traveling companions. Ian and Barbara Chesterton were the first." They spend the next hour listening to the girl tell them the story of the Doctor. She has photographs of every single person that's traveled with the Doctor and a few of interesting alien planets that the Doctor had apparently gone to. She even has photos of a few of his various regenerations, which is a whole can of worms to explain to them. 

 

She pauses to make tea after telling them about the time war. 

 

"But what happened after the war?" Amy blurts when the kettle starts boiling. "Because my Doctor talks about it like its ancient history."

 

Rose's eyes are pained, "I did. He met me in 2005. Traveled with him for a few years then we were... separated." She slowly makes them tea, struggling to keep her hands from shaking as she does. "He had two other companions after that. I don't know their stories, mostly because they both dont talk about them very much. Well, Martha doesn't. Donna never shuts up. But she mostly makes fun of the Doctor.

 

"Anyway. I managed to get back, kept the daleks from destroying all of reality and then he shuffled me off back to where I had been stuck in the first place with a human version of himself."

 

"Why would he do that?" Amy asked, uneasily clutching at her mug. 

 

"Because I'm in love with him and human, or so he thought. And he figured that I would be happier ther with my family and a version of him that could grow old with me." Rose snorts, "He's always been good at making decisions for people. But if he had just bothered to ask me, he would have found out that I'm not fully human anymore."

 

"What happened?" Rory asked. 

 

"Lived a mostly normal life. Used a perception filter to hide that I wasn't aging. But then he died. Everyone died actually." She stares down into her cup, "I'm 382. Been back for fifty years or so now."

 

"How did you get back?"

 

"God, I don't even really know. I think it was some kind of fluke because I was looking through an old box of our things and there was one of the dimension cannon controllers and I just pressed it. And I woke up here. Fifty years too early, mind. But I just hooked up with Jack and we kept each other out of trouble." She pauses and takes a long drink of her tea before continuing. "But none of that is my reason for telling you. We have gatherings. Those of us who've traveled with the Doctor. We've even got a group chat on Facebook."

 

"What like some kind of companions club?" Amy quipped.

 

Rose grinned, "Exactly."

**Author's Note:**

> Keep an eye out for part three!


End file.
